Weekend Photo Fun 10-13-23-??

Many years ago I bought a set of Odyssey Alco F units. They were never very good so when they came out with the new legacy version I bought an AA set but I always regretted not buying the power or dummy B unit. My son just located a dummy B unit and here are some pictures of all three together. The first image is at Port Royal,  the second one is at Mifflin, and the third is a panoramic view of all three units together. We are also searching for a powered B unit. Do any of you know of one for sale?

the last set of drive-in images from years past on my CHristmas Layout.  They all had a similar look to them because the 2'x2' board that I made as the parking/viewing area was used all of the time.  The fence going around the parking area was re-used from year to year, so again, hard to make it look different.

I don't know about where you live, but here in Pittsburgh drive-ins "back then" typically had a playground and eating area, are were always fenced in.

I'll be setting up a drive-in scene for this year's Christmas Layout.

- walt

Thanks Scott for getting us started for this fine weekend!  Here are some more fall colors from the Mountain Division of the Free State Junction Railway.  Have a terrific weekend everyone!

Have another work day scheduled for today on the signals.  Here is a picture that shows a longer view of the area where we are working today.  This is taken from Sabula looking west.  You can see the Proviso yard on the left and the Eola yard in the right center.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Here is a link to our signal thread.

https://ogrforum.com/...0#180495596835309830

Art

This weeks tinplate video.

Scott Smith

Scott, You should label the barrels pumpkin spice!

A recently refurbished Lionel 253 gets a chance to stretch its legs:

The 610/610/612 set of coaches await clean-up. Until then, we'll run a few 607/608's behind it.

Nice mountain, Patrick.

PD

I was in kind of a rush this morning when I posted my pictures of my Alco units but here are two more that I intended to publish today. Right after I took the other pictures, I had to crawl under the layout to get some thing right below my model of the Tuscarora Creek bridge, and the view through there is really cool so I took two cell phone shots. In the one picture you can see the stone arch bridge, which took me almost a year to build although it’s been done for over 20 years now.  In the distance in both scenes, you can see the farm right along the banks of Tuscarora Creek. The tractor is heavily weathered, and the hay bale wagon was a kitbashed out of another type of piece of farm equipment.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures for sharing today:

It's hard to believe autumn is here.

Playing with my new MrMuffin/Harry Heike custom New York Ontario & Western Mogul.

Have a great and safe weekend. everyone!

Peter

The busy streets of the city of Christopolis.

Percy pulls a short train of "troublesome trucks" by the village on the side of Mt. Carroll.

The city park on the east side of the city of Christopolis.

Also, I ran a little PostWar. This is a Sears uncataloged set (number 9674) from 1961. It is very similar to Set 2570 in the 1961 catalog and an excellent advantage on how Lionel would reward their large accounts with department store "specials". They would be slightly different (switching a car or two) and usually augmented with an extra car. Then, they were offered at the same or lower price than the similar regular catalog set.

Have a great and safe weekend, everyone!

Peter

@Chugman posted:

Have another work day scheduled for today on the signals.  Here is a picture that shows a longer view of the area where we are working today.  This is taken from Sabula looking west.  You can see the Proviso yard on the left and the Eola yard in the right center.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Here is a link to our signal thread.

https://ogrforum.com/...0#180495596835309830

Art

Art,

Took a quick look at your old thread but its pretty long. Could you tell us what you use to operate your signals? I've been doing signals since I was 16 years old, and they are an integral part of my layout. In fact, it is a big reason I went back to three rail trains...train detection with 2 rails is a big pain. Back then and to this day,  have always used relays and relay logic which I became quite proficient at.  Only change was to switch from pricey AC relays to inexpensive 4PDT 12 volt relays by overlaying 12v DC on the outer rails which I eventually realized was possible and easy to do. Is that what you are using, your are you using a computer system to operate yours? Tell us about your system!

Just back from the Golden Spike Ceremony in Farmingdale Nj. The Chesapeake & Delaware RR Spent the last 8 months restoring the PRR ROW between Freehold and Farmingdale.








The Y will be restored when the clay is replaced with a more stable ROW.

Hi Everyone,

This is a sneak peak at a project I've been working on for a few weeks now. The project is now 99.9% completed. Part 1 of the build was posted on my YouTube channel today. Check it out.  More to come...

Dave

As usual, in the Photo Fun before York, I post a few pix from previous York Forum "get togethers"......

Safe travels to all......

Peter

....and, a few more......

Safe travels to all!

Peter

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

Art,

Took a quick look at your old thread but its pretty long. Could you tell us what you use to operate your signals? I've been doing signals since I was 16 years old, and they are an integral part of my layout. In fact, it is a big reason I went back to three rail trains...train detection with 2 rails is a big pain. Back then and to this day,  have always used relays and relay logic which I became quite proficient at.  Only change was to switch from pricey AC relays to inexpensive 4PDT 12 volt relays by overlaying 12v DC on the outer rails which I eventually realized was possible and easy to do. Is that what you are using, your are you using a computer system to operate yours? Tell us about your system!

Neil, I have been trying to document our system on my thread as we go along.  But, to put it in a nutshell after examining the choices of computer controlled and old-fashioned relay driven systems, we decided to go with the Atlas Signal Boards and Interlocking Boards.  They seemed to have most of the features that we were looking for.  After deciding that I wanted searchlight style signals and would need a lot of signal bridges, it was obvious that we would have to make them ourselves.  Any system requires a large investment in time, materials, and knowledge and there are more than one way to get there.  Our team researched all this and decided that this approach was the best fit for us at this time.  It would have been easier to have built and installed everything as the layout was being built rather than all at once, but then that would have been before the current options of modern 3D printing and LED's.  So, there is probably never a perfect time to do something like this, but I felt it was mandatory in order to be able to conduct the operating sessions we are planning.

I will attempt to do a better job of recapping our whole process when we get a little further down the road.  We are still learning during the "fine-tuning"  phase of this installation, but are pleased with the results so far.  Your layout and attention to prototypical  detail is an inspiration to me.  I very much appreciate your interest and support.

Art 

Not a very interesting post, but I just felt like posting something

Getting ready to start on my 2023 Christmas Layout

I have the track plan done, scenery planned, wiring figured out, Homasote needed, etc.

I'm space challenged.  In the off-season I store the Homasote in my garage standing on edge.  That leads to any amount of bowing.  So to try to undo that, I bring the Homasote to my living room to lay flat where my 11'x14' Christmas layout will be built.

I won't explain here, but there's more to planning the Homasote than just what fits.  Here's this year's:

Getting started flattening the boards out.  These boards will be used for the 11'x14' lower level only.  I lay the blue board done first and put the Homasote on top of it.  I leave gaps in the blue board so as to be able to run wires in those openings to help hide them

- walt

Peter thanks for sharing those pictures. 

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

Art,

Took a quick look at your old thread but its pretty long. Could you tell us what you use to operate your signals? I've been doing signals since I was 16 years old, and they are an integral part of my layout. In fact, it is a big reason I went back to three rail trains...train detection with 2 rails is a big pain. Back then and to this day,  have always used relays and relay logic which I became quite proficient at.  Only change was to switch from pricey AC relays to inexpensive 4PDT 12 volt relays by overlaying 12v DC on the outer rails which I eventually realized was possible and easy to do. Is that what you are using, your are you using a computer system to operate yours? Tell us about your system!

Neal - It would be awesome if you would share more pictures of your yards.  This might be the first picture I have seen, normally it seems to be the mainlines and the occasional industrial sidings.  Thanks, Jim

@walt rapp posted:

Not a very interesting post, but I just felt like posting something

Getting ready to start on my 2023 Christmas Layout

I have the track plan done, scenery planned, wiring figured out, Homasote needed, etc.

I'm space challenged.  In the off-season I store the Homasote in my garage standing on edge.  That leads to any amount of bowing.  So to try to undo that, I bring the Homasote to my living room to lay flat where my 11'x14' Christmas layout will be built.

I won't explain here, but there's more to planning the Homasote than just what fits.  Here's this year's:

Getting started flattening the boards out.  These boards will be used for the 11'x14' lower level only.  I lay the blue board done first and put the Homasote on top of it.  I leave gaps in the blue board so as to be able to run wires in those openings to help hide them

- walt

Homasote on top of blue-board on top of carpet...that layout must run nice and quiet, Walt.

Eager to see this year’s iteration of the Christmas layout!

It is 1949 and the photographer caught a 30-year old N1s pulling a long freight.  It looked to be going close to its 35 mph speed limit as it approached the sharp curve around the town.  This big engine will not have any issues with that curve as the 1st and 5th drivers have lateral side motion and the center driver is blind.  The photographer was amazed that of 60 built, most were still in servcie.

3rd Rail brass.

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

This is creative model photography at its finest! Neal you do amazing work my friend. Both of these images are excellent and especially the lower one through the arch is very close to looking like a real-life scene from the past!

The reflection in the water just adds to the effect...

I am ready for my Traincation to begin on Wednesday.

The Army moves out…

General American Refrigerated

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

I was in kind of a rush this morning when I posted my pictures of my Alco units but here are two more that I intended to publish today. Right after I took the other pictures, I had to crawl under the layout to get some thing right below my model of the Tuscarora Creek bridge, and the view through there is really cool so I took two cell phone shots. In the one picture you can see the stone arch bridge, which took me almost a year to build although it’s been done for over 20 years now.  In the distance in both scenes, you can see the farm right along the banks of Tuscarora Creek. The tractor is heavily weathered, and the hay bale wagon was a kitbashed out of another type of piece of farm equipment.

Neil,  looks amazing!  I would like to finish my water scenes.  I used magic water on my previous layout.  They are out of business!  Any suggestions on a substitute???  I’m looking for the best product.  
Thanks in advance

Chris